South Korea has 22 universities in this year’s rankings with Seoul National University in 37th.
Top 10 Best Medical Schools in the US: How to Get In (2023)
A list of the top medical schools in the US, plus strategies to help you get admitted
Introduction
List of the top 10 best medical schools: 2023 rankings & admissions statistics
How to get into top-10 medical schools
Introduction
Getting into any medical school is a notable achievement, especially since the majority of applicants do not get in anywhere. However, if you’re a high-achieving premed who has dedicated a great deal of time and effort to obtaining great grades, studying for the MCAT, and participating in extracurriculars, it makes sense that you’d want to attend the best medical school you can. For many, an acceptance from a top medical school is the ultimate validation of your sacrifices and hard work.
Getting into the best medical schools is hard, and it’s easy to understand why the competition for the limited number of seats is so fierce. Career opportunities for graduates of prestigious medical schools are limitless, as many go on to become Nobel Laureates, CEOs, or pioneers in medical research.
We’ve all heard of superstar premeds getting rejected from top med schools. So what does it really take, beyond great grades and test scores, to get in?
We’ve compiled a list below of the top 10 best medical schools, according to the 2023 U.S. News & World Report research rankings, along with admission statistics so you can better understand the admissions landscape. We’ll also share some high-yield strategies to help you stand out when applying so you can maximize your chances of getting accepted.
List of the top 10 best medical schools: 2023 rankings & admissions statistics
| Top 10 Best Medical Schools | US News Ranking | Location | Degree | Year Est. | Annual Tuition & Fees | Avg. GPA | Avg. MCAT | Interview Rate | First-Year Class Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harvard Medical School | 1 | Boston | MD | 1782 | $69,300 IS $69,300 OOS |
3.95 | 520 | 15.3% IS 9.1% OOS |
164 (11.6% IS) |
| Johns Hopkins School of Medicine | 2 | Baltimore | MD | 1893 | $62,850 IS $62,850 OOS 2023-2024 academic year |
3.94 | 521 | 12.66% | 120 (8.3% IS) |
| University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine | 3 | Philadelphia | MD | 1765 | $65,940 IS $65,940 OOS 2023-2024 academic year |
3.92 | 521.7 | NA | 149 (8.1% IS) |
| Columbia Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons | 4 | New York | MD | 1767 | $70,886 IS $70,886 OOS 2023-2024 academic year |
3.93 | 521 | 12.41% | 138 (20.3% IS) |
| Duke University School of Medicine | Tied for 5 | Durham | MD | 1930 | $68,147 IS $68,147 OOS 2023-2024 academic year |
3.9 | 520 | 11.28% | 105 |
| Stanford University School of Medicine | Tied for 5 | Stanford | MD | 1908 | $84,996 IS $84,996 OOS 2023-2024 academic year over 4 quarters |
3.89 | 518 | 5.93% | 90 (32.2% IS) |
| UCSF School of Medicine* | Tied for 5 | San Francisco | MD | 1864 | $38,073 IS $50,318 OOS |
3.87 | 90th percentile (approximately 515) | 5.98% | 167 |
| Vanderbilt University School of Medicine | Tied for 5 | Nashville | MD | 1874 | $66,828 IS $66,828 OOS 2023-2024 academic year |
3.5 – 4.0 | 509/510 – 528 | 11.02% | 96 |
| Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis | Tied for 5 | St Louis | MD | 1891 | $67,295 IS $67,295 OOS |
3.86 | 520.2 | NA | 124 (IS 10.5%) |
| Weill Cornell Medical College | Tied for 10 | New York | MD | 1898 | $64,500 | 3.91 | 519 | 9.86% | 106 (34% IS) |
| NYU Grossman School of Medicine | Tied for 10 | New York | MD | 1841 | $3,950 IS $3,950 OOS All students get a full-tuition scholarship |
3.92 | 522 | 12.4% | 105 (17.1% IS) |
| Yale University School of Medicine | Tied for 10 | New Haven | MD | 1810 | $70,184 IS $70,184 OOS |
3.85 | 519 | NA | 104 (5.8% IS) |
*Public medical schools | UR: Unranked | IS: In-state | OOS: Out-of-state | NA: Not available
Top medical schools
The recently released QS World University Rankings by Subject features 682 of the top higher education institutes to study medicine.
The QS University Rankings by Subject are based on five indicators: academic reputation, employer reputation, research citations per paper, the H-index (a way of measuring the productivity and published work of a scientist or scholar) and international research network. You can find more details about the methodology behind the subject rankings here.
Read on to discover the best medical schools in each region. Alternatively, if you would like to explore the medical schools in further detail, click here to view the full table.
QS University Rankings by Subject – Top 10 medical schools
Rank
University
Location
Top universities for medicine in the US and Canada
112 of the world’s best medical schools are found in the United States, with five of these making it into the worldwide top ten. Harvard University offers the world’s best medical programme for the eighth consecutive year, achieving a perfect score for academic and employer reputation, H-index citations, and international research network. Also, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a global medical research leader, despite not making the top ten this year, with the highest score in the country for citations per paper.
Canada has 17 medical schools in the ranking this year, with its top-scoring university, University of Toronto, ranked 15th in the world and earning its highest score in the H-index citations indicator. Also in the global top 50 in Canada are McGill University (22nd), University of British Columbia (28th) and McMaster University (40th).
Top universities for medicine in Europe
Europe is home to 252 of the top universities to study medicine. Of these, the United Kingdom claims 48 of Europe’s top medical schools, including four of the global top ten. Outside of the top ten, there are plenty of other medical schools which perform very well including King’s College London (13th), London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (18th), The University of Edinburgh (22nd), The University of Manchester (32nd) and University of Glasgow (48th).
France performs well this year with 18 universities featured, including two in the top 150, Sorbonne University (49th) and Université Paris-Saclay (140th), both scoring well in the research citations per paper indicator.
Italy also performed well with an incredible 30 universities in the rankings this year including four in the top 150.
Germany contains a staggering 32 universities in the medicine rankings this year with two of these in the top 50: Universität Heidelberg (36th) and Ludwig-Maximillians-Universität München (43rd).
Spain is home to 19 featured universities with Universitat de Barcelona in the top 100, placing joint 46th.
The Netherlands contains nine medical schools in the ranking this year, two of which are in the top 50: University of Amsterdam (30th) and Erasmus University Rotterdam (39th).
Denmark has five universities in the rankings. University of Copenhagen is 43rd in the world and scored well in the citations per paper indicator.
Sweden’s eight entries in this year’s rankings include Karolinska Institutet, the only medicine university outside of the UK and the US in the worldwide top ten medical school ranking, achieving a rank of fifth and scoring particularly well for academic reputation, with a near-perfect score.
Top universities for medicine in Australia and New Zealand
In Australia, there are 26 universities, three of which are in the global top 50: The University of Melbourne (24th), The University of Sydney (25th) and Monash University (40th).
New Zealand has three entries in the ranking this year with the University of Auckland within the top 150 universities in the world at 122nd.
Top universities for medicine in Asia
This year’s medicine subject ranking includes 187 of the best medical schools in Asia. Japan contains the most medicine schools in Asia, an impressive 32, including two in the world top 100 – The University of Tokyo (42nd) and Kyoto University (59th).
Mainland China also performed well with 30 medical schools featured and four universities placing in the top 100: Peking University (38th) Fudan University (74th), Tsinghua University (76th) and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (80th).
South Korea has 22 universities in this year’s rankings with Seoul National University in 37th.
India is also home to eleven universities in this year’s rankings with one new entry, SRM Institute of Science and Technology ranking 651-680 for its medical school.
Malaysia contains ten top medical schools, adding one into the rankings this year.
Also performing well in the rankings this year is Taiwan with ten universities featuring and National Taiwan University in the top 100 at joint 46th.
Hong Kong SAR also has many medical schools including The Chinese University of Hong Kong (joint 29th) and The University of Hong Kong (joint 40th).
Top universities for medicine in the Middle East
The Middle East is home to 48 of the world’s best medical schools. Saudi Arabia contains the highest number of medical schools, seven, closely followed by Israel which has six. Of these King Adulaziz University (joint 126th) and Tel Aviv University (151-200) rank the highest in their respective countries.
Lebanon has three entries this year with the American University of Beirut coming out on top, ranked 151-200 .
Jordan has two entries, the United Arab Emirates also have two entries and Iraq, Oman, Qatar, and Kuwait each have one.
Top universities for medicine in Latin America
There are 59 medical universities in Latin America featured in the QS University Rankings by Subject this year. Brazil claims the highest proportion of these, 20 in total, including Universidade de São Paulo (64th) in the global top 100.
Chile has eleven universities in the ranking including its top university for medicine, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (96th) and two new entries, Universidad de Valparaíso and Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaíso.
Columbia also has eleven medical schools featured in the ranking with Universidad Nacional de Columbia retaining the title of the best university in the country to study medicine.
Argentina has five entries this year with one new school being added since last year. Universidad de Buenos Aires scores the highest, ranking 151-200 in the world rankings for this subject.
Mexico has six entries including Universidad Nacional Autonóma de Mexico which has placed in the top 200 globally.
Top universities for medicine in Africa
Africa also performed well in the rankings this year with 25 university entries. South Africa is home to eight of these, including the University of Cape Town (88th) which ranks in the global top 100.
Egypt contains nine of these universities, including Cairo University which is named the best medical school in the country and ranks in the global top 250.
